Today in History:

454 Series I Volume VIII- Serial 8 - Pea Ridge

Page 454 OPERATIONS IN MO., ARK., KANS., AND IND. T. Chapter XVIII.

ton, taking possession of all teams loaded with produce or goods destined for the South and send them back to Bird's Point. The object of this expedition, it is hardly necessary for me to inform you, should be kept entirely secret.

U. S. GRANT,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

PALMYRA, MO., December 21, 1861.

Major-General HALLECK,

Commanding Department of the Missouri:

Track torn up on North Missouri Railroad near Hudson. Amount of damage not yet ascertained. Two companies of cavalry sent down the road to arrest perpetrators.

B. M. PRENTISS.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, December 21, 1861.

Honorable HANNIBAL HAMLIN,

President of the Senate:

SIR: In answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 17th instant I have the honor to inclose to you a report of the Adjutant-General, submitting a copy of a plan, dated Executive Mansion, Washington, November 5, 1861, with a copy of the President's indorsement, dated November 6, 1861, and a copy of a letter to Charles Gibson, dated Washington, November 7, 1861, from Governor Gamble. These documents furnish all the information on file in this Department in relation to raising and employing volunteer militia in the State of Missouri.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOMAS A. SCOTT,

Assistant Secretary of War.

[Inclosures.]

WASHINGTON, November 7, 1861.

CHARLES GIBSON, Esq.:

SIR: I have made an arrangement with the President for arming, equipping, clothing, subsisting, transporting, and paying troops to be raised in Missouri as Missouri State Militia, and a general order will issue to the different departments of the United States service to carry the arrangement into effect. I appoint you to act as agent to the State to make arrangements with the officers of the United States in the different departments of the military service to carry out the agreement with all possible dispatch, as the safety of the State and the interest of the United States require the utmost diligence in carrying it into effect.

Your obedient servant,

H. R. GAMBLE,

Governor of Missouri.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, November 5, 1861.

The Governor of the State of Missouri, acting under the direction of the Convention of that State, proposes to the Government of the United


Page 454 OPERATIONS IN MO., ARK., KANS., AND IND. T. Chapter XVIII.